Professional Notes

Dr. Kathryn Combs, Finance Department, Opus College of Business, presented a paper, “Casino Mergers, Acquisitions, and the ‘Harrah’s Effect,’” at the 104th annual conference of the National Tax Association, Nov. 18-20, in Chicago. Dr. John Spry, Finance Department, Opus College of Business, and Jim Landers, Indiana Legislative Services Agency, were co-authors of the paper.

Dr. Michael Hennessey, School of Engineering, Linda Nininahazwe, a student at St. Thomas, and Nessa Johnson ’09, ’10 M.S.M.E, presented papers at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers International Mechanical Engineering Conference and Exposition, Nov. 14-18, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Nininahazwe’s paper, “Methodology for Creating a Scale Model of an Assembly” documented her summer 2009 NSF STEP Grant (with Dr. Sue Chaplin, Biology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, and Center for Faculty Development) efforts in which she fabricated a scale model breadfruit shredder based, in part, on rapid prototyping technology previously developed by Dr. Camille George, School of Engineering, and her students. Johnson’s paper (with Dr. John Abraham, School of Engineering), “Swept Arc Length Measure of Abrasive Wear,” was based on her M.S. work (funded through a 3M grant) and extends previous research by Dr. Hennessey. Large-scale simulations implemented the idea using MATLAB with Simulink in the loop and the numerical work also was checked by several 3M mechanics researchers, who independently have developed the same basic concept but simulated it differently using finite element analysis preprocessor code.

Donna Nix, Marianne Hagemanand Janice Kragness, UST Libraries, presented “A Level Playing Field?: ELM and the High School to College High Jump” at the annual conference of the Minnesota Library Association Oct. 8 in Rochester, Minn. Their presentation highlighted the importance of the Electronic Library for Minnesota, a collection of online articles, electronic books and reference sources, to Catholic high schools. They also presented “Information Literacy: The Bridge from High School to College” at the annual conference of the South Dakota Library Association, Sept. 23, in Sioux Falls, S.D. Nix presented “Information Literacy: Still Essential for All Students” at the annual conference of the Minnesota Educational Media Organization, Oct. 2, in St. Cloud, Minn.